When done well, unboxing videos can be fun and really informative about what a user can expect to see when a new phone lands at the front door. But when a vid misses the mark — man, it's tough to watch.
I fear that our friends at T-mo may have gotten a bum deal with this promo. The vid was clearly created by some PR folks, and it's... well, clearly contrived. Maybe even kind of creepy. But the real question is, does it make you want this phone?
What say youse? Sound off below.
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21Apr
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprI have a serious love/hate relationship with Hulu. I fell in love with this online video service because of its great selection of TV shows (including stuff from Fox, NBC, and Comedy Central, among others), classic movies and interviews/clips. But I hate the ongoing battle between Hulu and Boxee, my video-viewing software of choice these days for the Mac. (If you have no idea what Boxee is, check out Noah's video review of it here.)
The on-again/off-again relationship between the two has stirred up drama that rivals the best telenovela. When it works, watching Hulu through Boxee is sweet — really, truly good enough to make me consider chucking my actual TV. But Hulu's content partners decided they didn't want people watching on anything but a traditional web browser.
They felt that the Boxee interface, which is controllable via Apple remote or iPhone, is way too much like real TV. And they really, really don't like that. So they keep trying to block it, and Boxee counters by delving into all crazy kinds of work-arounds to satisfy its fanbase, who's hooked on Hulu. (Seriously. There's even a Twitterfeed that lets followers know on any given day if Hulu's working on Boxee or not.)
What does that have to with cell phones? Well, word on the street is that Hulu is developing an iPhone app that will launch in a few months.
I have mixed emotions over this one. Mobile Hulu? And it could potentially be available on Apple's next handset? AWESOME. The prospect of accessing all that delicious content on a new iPhone makes me feel all tingly. And yet a disquiet follows my soul: What the heck happened to "we don't like people viewing our content on anything but a web browser," etc, etc? Why did I jump through hoops, spending entire afternoons trying to figure out the Boxee workarounds?
Bewildered, enraged, excited — yep, I'm feeling all that right now. And I somehow feel like a sucker because I know that I'll be one of the first to grab this from the App Store when it comes out, even if I have to pay for it. But rumor has it that this app is amazing, so I'm willing to line the pockets of the guys who ruined a few of my weekends just to see if it's true.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprFor weeks I harassed my Nokia PR rep about getting me an XpressMusic 5800 loaner to review. The poor woman kept telling me that she didn't have any loaners yet, and that I was on the list to get one as soon as she did. And I kept bugging her. Why? Well, the 5800 is Nokia's first touch-optimized S60 smartphone, but that wasn't the reason. And no, it wasn't just because I'm as forgetful as a doddering old professor (I really didn't mean to pester her so much). The reason was because of the device's Contacts Bar Home screen I'd caught a fleeting glimpse of back in February at MWC in Barcelona.
Like HTC's new Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2, the Palm Pre, and Nokia's own Intrigue, the 5800 features what some in the industry are starting to call "people-centric" conversation management. I know, it seems odd to refer to a people-centric phone as something new and innovative, but it is. Kind of. It's new(ish), anyway.
People-centric as I'm using it here refers to phones that display at-a-glance call and messaging logs arranged by who you've been talking to rather than how you've been talking to them. So instead of only displaying discrete logs for Call History, SMS/MMS history, Email history, etc, these new phones also offer complete records of your communications on a person-by-person basis. So instead of searching my call logs for each instance of talking with "Sarah," for example, I can just look at "Sarah" and see when we called each other along with all of our texts, MMS messages, and Emails.
The Nokias allow you to view this info for a small handful of contacts at a time, while the new HTCs let you track conversations with anyone in your address book, while also designating "favorite people" on a Home screen. Palm's Pre utilizes something company calls Synergy, which promises to let you carry a conversation across different modes of communication without dropping a beat. In other words, I can start talking to Sarah via IM, and then seamlessly move to SMS/MMS or Email should one or the other of us decide to switch devices (so if Sarah moves from IM on her desktop computer to SMS on her mobile phone, my Pre will keep the conversation humming for me, and all in one place).
Palm may well be taking the concept one step further via Pre's advertised integration with Web-based messaging services like Facebook and twitter - while FB and twitter clients are available on smartphones and come pre-installed T-Mobile's new Sidekick LX 2009, Pre may soon allow me to view Sarah's tweets and Facebook status updates right alongside of her Emails and SMSs. Knowing HTC, I'd imagine similar functionality could well be show up in the new version of TouchFlo 3D later this year. And Nokia's flagship N97, due to ship this Summer, has already been dubbed "The FaceBook Phone" by some in the know at the Finnish company.
Beyond that, Yahoo! Mobile Apps (Web-based and installable) and forthcoming software from 3Deep promise to bring similar people-aware software to existing smartphones. There's even a snarky nickname for this emerging breed of people-centric stuff: StalkerWare.
Thing is, just because software and hardware companies are making all of this stuff doesn't meant that consumers will actually want or use it. Which brings me back to the Nokia 5800 I just got to review: The Contacts Bar is kind of cool, but the rest of the phone is, frankly, kind of a mess. So it's hard for me to tell if the Contacts Bar actually isn't all that handy, or if it is useful but overshadowed by an otherwise messy user interface.
So you tell me: Contacts Bars, People-Centric call/messaging logs, and conversations that follow you via Email/IM/SMS and social media services as you're on the go ... Do you want it all in one place, or are you fine with jumping from call logs to SMS threads to your IM and twitter apps? Is StalkerWare the next big thing in mobile tech, or just the newest blip du jour on your phone's screen?Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21Apr
If our post on mobile theft left you thinking seriously about what precautions you personally would be taking against it happening, then perhaps you could take it a step further and consider how to make mobile phones more secure for everybody. The UK’s Design Council has organised a competition where designers must come up with new ways of doing exactly this, and they’re currently look for applicants!Don’t think this is just a software-only issue either, as the Design Council’s brief has three areas on which both designers and technology experts can work together in order to create a complete solution. Here’s the three key areas: making mobiles harder to steal or less desirable to thieves, ensuring the data stored on the phone is more secure and to make future mobile payment systems as secure as possible to prevent fraud.
Named the Mobile Phone Security Challenge, the Design Council is looking for four winning teams, and each will receive £100,000 to develop their idea. To take part, head over to their website and register before the 22nd May, then network with other entrants to form your team. This is a great initiative which will hopefully produce some innovative ideas to deal with a serious issue, so let us know if you’re going to be a part of it!
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21Apr
Mobile phone applications are probably the hottest thing going in the smartphone industry today. There is an app for everything that you want to do and then some. For the most part, these applications are terrific. They increase productivity, make our lives more efficient and save us time. But are all of them really necessary or are some of them just plain ridiculous? Aren’t there still a few things left in life that we should be able to do without our mobile phones? And aren’t there some things that a phone just shouldn’t do?
Here are ten examples of mobile phone applications that maybe just didn’t need to happen:
1. Reminders to Pray. There are several different mobile phone applications that will remind you that it’s time to pray. A popular new one is Sun Dial which uses a graphics-rich approach to remind Muslims of prayer time throughout the day. Isn’t this a ritual that we should be able to remember without having our phones tell us that it’s time?
2. Free Family Watch. This application is marketed as a way to keep your family safe at all times by using the GPS information stored in your phone to alert you to when you might be in areas of danger. It’s nice in theory. However, is it really a good idea to have your phone beeping alarmingly at you when you’ve stepped into a neighborhood with a high number of registered sex offenders? This one (more…)
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21Apr
As many people are looking to cut expenses wherever they can to deal with the current economic conditions, it’s no wonder that prepaid cell phone cards are gaining in popularity.
Prepaid cell phone cards offer an affordable and manageable solution to your cellular calling needs and eliminate large bills caused by excessive text messaging or going over your monthly allotted minutes on a traditional calling plan. These prepaid calling cards are especially suited to those that don’t use a mobile phone excessively, but want the convenience of having a cell phone in the case of emergency or the ability to contact friends or family on a less frequent basis. They are also great for someone that doesn’t want to have a credit check or put down a costly deposit for cellular services.
In order to use a prepaid cell phone card, a consumer will need a prepaid mobile phone. This type of mobile phone can be found at numerous popular retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens. Other retailers like gas stations sometimes carry prepaid phones and calling cards, too. In addition to these retailers, you might also find prepaid phones at AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores, if you choose to go straight to the source. Another option is Virgin Mobile, which specializes in prepaid cell phones.
Before purchasing a prepaid cell phone card, it’s important to make sure the card will work with your phone – the prepaid minutes must be from the same carrier that services your phone, otherwise the card won’t work.
So if you’re looking to trim your monthly bills or want a mobile phone without paying a small fortune, consider a prepaid mobile phone and prepaid cell phone cards before you spend money on a costly (and lengthy) calling plan.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprA shot from the Google Campus.
This seems to be sprouting up everywhere at once, but I got mine from Android Rights.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprFor weeks I harassed my Nokia PR rep about getting me an XpressMusic 5800 loaner to review. The poor woman kept telling me that she didn't have any loaners yet, and that I was on the list to get one as soon as she did. And I kept bugging her. Why? Well, the 5800 is Nokia's first touch-optimized S60 smartphone, but that wasn't the reason. And no, it wasn't just because I'm as forgetful as a doddering old professor (I really didn't mean to pester her so much). The reason was because of the device's Contacts Bar Home screen I'd caught a fleeting glimpse of back in February at MWC in Barcelona.
Like HTC's new Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2, the Palm Pre, and Nokia's own Intrigue, the 5800 features what some in the industry are starting to call "people-centric" conversation management. I know, it seems odd to refer to a people-centric phone as something new and innovative, but it is. Kind of. It's new(ish), anyway.
People-centric as I'm using it here refers to phones that display at-a-glance call and messaging logs arranged by who you've been talking to rather than how you've been talking to them. So instead of only displaying discrete logs for Call History, SMS/MMS history, Email history, etc, these new phones also offer complete records of your communications on a person-by-person basis. So instead of searching my call logs for each instance of talking with "Sarah," for example, I can just look at "Sarah" and see when we called each other along with all of our texts, MMS messages, and Emails.
The Nokias allow you to view this info for a small handful of contacts at a time, while the new HTCs let you track conversations with anyone in your address book, while also designating "favorite people" on a Home screen. Palm's Pre utilizes something company calls Synergy, which promises to let you carry a conversation across different modes of communication without dropping a beat. In other words, I can start talking to Sarah via IM, and then seamlessly move to SMS/MMS or Email should one or the other of us decide to switch devices (so if Sarah moves from IM on her desktop computer to SMS on her mobile phone, my Pre will keep the conversation humming for me, and all in one place).
Palm may well be taking the concept one step further via Pre's advertised integration with Web-based messaging services like Facebook and twitter - while FB and twitter clients are available on smartphones and come pre-installed T-Mobile's new Sidekick LX 2009, Pre may soon allow me to view Sarah's tweets and Facebook status updates right alongside of her Emails and SMSs. Knowing HTC, I'd imagine similar functionality could well be show up in the new version of TouchFlo 3D later this year. And Nokia's flagship N97, due to ship this Summer, has already been dubbed "The FaceBook Phone" by some in the know at the Finnish company.
Beyond that, Yahoo! Mobile Apps (Web-based and installable) and forthcoming software from 3Deep promise to bring similar people-aware software to existing smartphones. There's even a snarky nickname for this emerging breed of people-centric stuff: StalkerWare.
Thing is, just because software and hardware companies are making all of this stuff doesn't meant that consumers will actually want or use it. Which brings me back to the Nokia 5800 I just got to review: The Contacts Bar is kind of cool, but the rest of the phone is, frankly, kind of a mess. So it's hard for me to tell if the Contacts Bar actually isn't all that handy, or if it is useful but overshadowed by an otherwise messy user interface.
So you tell me: Contacts Bars, People-Centric call/messaging logs, and conversations that follow you via Email/IM/SMS and social media services as you're on the go ... Do you want it all in one place, or are you fine with jumping from call logs to SMS threads to your IM and twitter apps? Is StalkerWare the next big thing in mobile tech, or just the newest blip du jour on your phone's screen?Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprI have a serious love/hate relationship with Hulu. I fell in love with this online video service because of its great selection of TV shows (including stuff from Fox, NBC, and Comedy Central, among others), classic movies and interviews/clips. But I hate the ongoing battle between Hulu and Boxee, my video-viewing software of choice these days for the Mac. (If you have no idea what Boxee is, check out Noah's video review of it here.)
The on-again/off-again relationship between the two has stirred up drama that rivals the best telenovela. When it works, watching Hulu through Boxee is sweet — really, truly good enough to make me consider chucking my actual TV. But Hulu's content partners decided they didn't want people watching on anything but a traditional web browser.
They felt that the Boxee interface, which is controllable via Apple remote or iPhone, is way too much like real TV. And they really, really don't like that. So they keep trying to block it, and Boxee counters by delving into all crazy kinds of work-arounds to satisfy its fanbase, who's hooked on Hulu. (Seriously. There's even a Twitterfeed that lets followers know on any given day if Hulu's working on Boxee or not.)
What does that have to with cell phones? Well, word on the street is that Hulu is developing an iPhone app that will launch in a few months.
I have mixed emotions over this one. Mobile Hulu? And it could potentially be available on Apple's next handset? AWESOME. The prospect of accessing all that delicious content on a new iPhone makes me feel all tingly. And yet a disquiet follows my soul: What the heck happened to "we don't like people viewing our content on anything but a web browser," etc, etc? Why did I jump through hoops, spending entire afternoons trying to figure out the Boxee workarounds?
Bewildered, enraged, excited — yep, I'm feeling all that right now. And I somehow feel like a sucker because I know that I'll be one of the first to grab this from the App Store when it comes out, even if I have to pay for it. But rumor has it that this app is amazing, so I'm willing to line the pockets of the guys who ruined a few of my weekends just to see if it's true.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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21AprWhen done well, unboxing videos can be fun and really informative about what a user can expect to see when a new phone lands at the front door. But when a vid misses the mark — man, it's tough to watch.
I fear that our friends at T-mo may have gotten a bum deal with this promo. The vid was clearly created by some PR folks, and it's... well, clearly contrived. Maybe even kind of creepy. But the real question is, does it make you want this phone?
What say youse? Sound off below.Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
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